White Collar: "Out of the Box"Review

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Season 1 ends with a bang.

By Jonah Krakow

White Collar is a light, fun mystery show on par with most of USA Network's enjoyable original programming, but at its best, it's like watching the last half-hour of Ocean's 11 on a weekly basis. And who doesn't love a well-planned heist? Yes, the show gets away with some silliness at times, but the intelligent schemes, sly tricks and intricate con games they pull off separate it from your standard mystery fare on TV. Plus, Matthew Bomer is just really likable as the charming rogue, Neal Caffrey.

The series wrapped up its first season with an exciting finale complete with everything we've come to expect from the show: plenty of twists and turns and a complicated heist that resulted in Neal getting his hands on the elusive Music Box - a treasure he finally captured after many previous failed attempts. This music box was also the key to reuniting Neal with the even-more-elusive-Kate, his ex-girlfriend. Kate was being held by the villainous Agent Fowler, who promised to release Kate and free Neal from his obligation as a consultant for the F.B.I. in exchange for the box. But anyone who's been watching this show from the beginning knows things were not going to be that simple.

Neal has spent the season assisting Agent Peter Burke in the White Collar Crimes division, using his inside information and experience as a master forger and con artist to solve crimes from the inside-out. In addition to helping the F.B.I., he's been independently searching for the Music Box to help him get back with Kate. Since being teased with clues about this mysterious treasure for a while now, we finally got some solid information about its whereabouts. Neal's con-artist ex-lover Alex found out the box was being held in a safe inside the Italian Consulate, which gave them (and fellow partner-in-crime Mozzie) a target to hit. After a season full of operations that put Neal's talents to the test, they saved the best caper for last, using aliases, explosive diversions and safe-cracking tools smuggled inside a forged Italian sculpture in order to obtain the box.

While I really enjoyed this episode for the tense cat-and-mouse games between Neal, Fowler and Burke, the frustrating thing is that they refused to divulge why the Music Box was so important or what it contained. Instead, they offered up more questions than answers, including, "who is pulling Agent Fowler's strings?" and, "what were the contents of the "Mentor" case file detailing Caffrey's history?" In addition, the final scene didn't seem as shocking as perhaps the producers would have liked. Let's be honest, we all knew Fowler wasn't going to honor his bargain with Neal, even with the box in his possession, so the bomb on the plane wasn't a total surprise. In addition, Neal was chasing the "idea" of Kate this entire season, and because we never got to see her, (with the exception of some grainy videos and a cryptic scene in the Fall finale), it's tough to feel much remorse now that she's out of the picture. Besides, she's easy to forget when Alex (Gloria Votsis) is slinking around in leather pants.

Those minor quibbles aside, this was a satisfying conclusion to a very entertaining first season. Going forward in Season 2 of White Collar, it'll be interesting to see how Neal handles his new freedom, what role Peter Burke plays in his life, and who exactly wanted him dead.